Saturday, February 16, 2013

Throw the Hatred Away and Love Yourself!

Why do we think it’s okay to put ourselves down and to call ourselves nasty names? To hurt our own feelings and make ourselves feel worse about ourselves than we already do? I would NEVER do this to any of my friends or family members, so why would I do it to myself? I would never tell anyone else that their body looks lumpy, or their skin looks awful or that their hair is flat and lifeless. So why should I tell myself this? I used to be the person who put myself down everyday. I said things like “I hate my body”, “I wish I was prettier”, “I wish I wasn’t so fat”, “I wish my hair was prettier”, “I wish I looked like (that person)”, “I wish my ass wasn’t so flat and wide”. I’ve been there. But things are different now. It seems like it’s hard nowadays to have good self esteem. Like there are expectations and standards that people are supposed to live up to. But these standards shouldn’t exist. You should create your own standards to make yourself feel good and to be happy. It sometimes seems hard to have a lot of self confidence and to say “I’m the shit.. I love me! I’m awesome!” because people look at you like you’re crazy. But you’re not! You SHOULD love yourself. You SHOULD know that you are awesome and dammit YOU ARE THE SHIT!! It’s important to love yourself and believe in who you are. It’s good to be unique and different. I had a coworker tell me “You’re a weird one Steph.” and all I said was “I know!” with a big smile on my face. WHY would i want to be like every other person on the street? I want to stand out, I want to be different... I want to be ME! Uniquely weird, sweet and funny.. but me!I know what it’s like to be bullied and to have your self esteem trampled on. I’ve been there and growing up was hard. No one wanted to be my friend.. I was awkward and didn’t look like most of the girls because I was a lot bigger and didn’t dress like any of the other girls. In grade 6 a handful of older girls tried to force feed me lucky charms because it was “buffalo food” and I was fat. I still remember the details of that day and it hurts looking back and thinking that kid’s can be that cruel. I’ve had girl’s threaten to kick my ass because they didn’t like me.. I’ve had guys make fun of my body because it wasn’t “perfect” in their eyes. They even had nicknames for my body parts which absolutely destroyed me. These things really tore me down. Do I let that affect me today? No. Why? Because I don’t allow people to hold that kind of power over me. Because I am a better and stronger person. I know myself better than those girls ever will and now my “fat” has turned into curves and my odd looking parts that guys made fun of are the things I like most about myself (and so does my boyfriend!). You can’t let your past define you. You need to move forward and open a new page. You need to be able to think “That was yesterday and this is today. This is a new day”. Today I am not sure if I could love myself any more. I am proud of myself and I sincerely think I am an incredible person that most people feel comfortable around.

I found this facebook page which really inspires me. It’s also where I found this picture:

It doesn’t matter if you’re big, small, short or tall. You are YOU. You are different than everyone else and you should be proud of what makes you unique. If everyone looked and acted the exact same way this would be a very boring world.Throw that hatred away, my friends, it’s time to find that self love and own it! Love yourself! With that said I am going to leave you with this quote:Never neglect the person you see in the mirror. This is the only person in the world, who has witnessed the entirety of your life. This person has experienced the thick the thin, the highs the lows, the good the bad. There are not too many certainties in life, but here's one: This person will stick with you for life, so in exchange for it's life long service make sure you place a high value on them.- Patricia NocerinoThanks for reading :)